Dublin to get five new gaelscoileanna over three years

Five new gaelscoileanna are to be established across Dublin over the coming three years.

The schools will open in areas of growing population where there is no existing Irish-medium primary school or where there is more than one new school to be established in coming years.

The Department of Education says it follows an analysis of the availability of gaelscoileanna in the wider Dublin area.

Two new gaelscoileanna will open next year in Donabate, and in the Donaghmede/Howth/Dublin 13 area, according to the Department of Education.

The following year will see new gaelscoileanna established in the Dublin 2 and 4 postal code areas, and in the Newcastle/Rathcoole and Saggart region of Co Dublin.

A new gaelscoil will open in 2020 or in 2022 in the Sallynoggin/Killiney/Cherrywood area. It will be one of two new primary schools due to open in that part of south Co Dublin in coming years. However, the order in which the two schools will open has yet to be decided.

Minister for Education Joe McHugh says he made the decision to designate the language of the five schools after amending criteria which are considered in determining the ethos and language of instruction of new primary schools.

Under the changes a new school will be designated as a gaelscoil if a new primary school is being established to meet demographic demand and there is no existing Irish-medium provision in the area.

The Department says that this will happen "unless there are particular local circumstances where this would not be appropriate".

The changes also mean that where a number of new primary schools are due to be established in an area, at least will be Irish medium, if deemed appropriate by the Department.

Minister McHugh said that the measure was part of a framework being developed in the Department to provide more opportunities to increase the provision of Irish-medium education.

He said the changes would provide more choice for parents and children and would give them better certainty about the availability of Irish-medium education for their children.

The five primary schools are among a total of 13 planned for coming years.